NCIS Alum Jennifer Esposito Is Joining A Superhero Series

There are a bevy of superhero shows on network, cable and streaming TV right now, and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have a new one coming to Amazon called The Boys. Casting has been underway for the project for a long while as the series has come together over at the streaming service, and now the series is adding an NCIS alum. Jennifer Esposito will be joining The Boys during its first season on the air.

New broke this week that Jennifer Esposito will be joining the cast of the new superhero series in what is being described as a "key role." So far, word on exactly what that role will be like on the series is being kept underwraps; however, we do know she will appear in The Boys as a CIA agent named Susan Raynor, which is fitting, given her recent TV work. Susan Raynor is currently signed up for five episodes of The Boys, per Deadline.

In Garth Ennis' comic book series, Susan L. Rayner is the director of the CIA and she used to work out of Afghanistan in the 1980s. She has a contentious relationship with Butcher, who is one of the leads in The Boys and who will be played by Karl Urban in the TV version. Rayner is one of the characters who is part of the American Government in the books and as such is not one of "The Boys." The character has popped up in multiple issues of the comics, so it's possible that if The Boys moves forward after Season 1 there could be more work down the line for Jennifer Esposito, depending on where the TV story takes her character.

The news is also notable because earlier this month Jennifer Esposito took to Facebook to discuss that she has been told that she is "not white enough" by a lot of casting directors. The actress discussed how her Italian-American heritage and name have reportedly caused her problems with casting. At the time she was currently in between TV roles. The actress has been a part of two major series in recent years, Blue Bloods and NCIS, but she left the latter in 2017 to pursue other career opportunities. Since then, she took a two-episode stint on Blindspot and has been signed on to various movie roles, but nothing like the exposure the CBS dramas brought her. Now, The Boys will be her next notable TV role.

As for The Boys, the author of the comic series Garth Ennis also created Preacher, which has done well as a TV series over at FX. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were also involved with that project, and they will be directing this new superhero venture. Other characters in the series will be played by Antony Starr, Chace Crawford, Dominique McElligott, Nathan Mitchell, Jessie T. Usher, Erin Mitchell, Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Elisabeth Shue and Jess Salgueiro, among others. We'll let you know as soon as The Boys gets an official premiere date from Amazon, but you can check out what's coming with CinemaBlend's full schedule in the meantime.